Simply put, SEO or Search Engine Optimization is optimizing your website so it comes up in the top 10-20 spots of Google — organically (non-paid) — for specific keywords or phrases related to your business and what you have to offer. One of the coolest things to hear when you ask, “How did you hear about me?” is “I Googled you”. Obviously, that means that your SEO is working!
Google Owns Search
Google has over 87% of North American searches. If you follow Google’s rules, you’ll get picked up by the other search engines. If you look at your website stats you’ll see that a good majority of your visitors will be coming from the search engines.
Google, with their algorithm updates, brings up the freshest, most relevant, and most useful content written for the human reader in natural language that matches what the searcher entered into the search box. It’s up to you to create the content so that you’ll come up when someone searches for what you have to offer.
Why is SEO Important?
- Organic Search — unpaid — is usually the main driver of traffic to your website.
- There are an estimated 3.5 billion searches on Google each day. (Source) In other words, there’s a lot of competition for your target market’s attention.
- 61.5% of desktop searches and 34.4% of mobile searches result in no clicks. (Source)
- Effective SEO helps you get traffic passively! That is, having to constantly promote and push content out. (Though, you still need to do some social media marketing.)
- Good SEO helps you increase conversions and sales!
- You can be sure that your competitors are using it. (I can do some research and find out for you).
- SEO is more cost-effective in the long run.
- Local SEO helps your brick-and-mortar business come up in Google Maps.
- You build trust and credibility with your customers.
Elements of Effective SEO
- On-Page SEO – the optimization of each page and blog post on your website.
- If you have an ecommerce store, is each product description optimized?
- This includes meta descriptions — what the searcher sees in the SERP (Search Engine Results Page) that entices them to click through to your website.
- SEO Copywriting — writing for your target audience with the search engine in mind — for static pages, e-commerce product listings, and blogs!
- Blog consistently to give Google the fresh content it’s looking for — at least weekly!
- Off-Page SEO – your content marketing strategy including social media marketing plays a crucial role.
- Most importantly is optimizing your Google Business Profile listing and ensuring it’s complete.
- Optimizing your social media profiles They have powerful search engines, too!
- It all starts with SEO Keyword Research — You need to know what YOUR potential customers are searching for so that you’ll come up in search.
Give Google what it wants and you’ll get on the top 10 spots of their SERP (Search Engine Results Page).
What about Google Core Web Vitals?
This algorithm update happened between June and August 2021. Google now ranks websites by the User Experience (UX) or Page Experience on a mobile device. Learn about it here. Test your site here. If you score under 80, you need to seriously look at what’s affecting that low score. It could be graphics, it could be the backend code, or plugins. What’s nice is the test tells you exactly what is wrong and how to fix it.
If you failed or barely passed the Core Web Vitals test, then please schedule a free 15-minute Zoom consult so I can review the results with you and best guide you on how to improve the score.
What About Competition?
Ah, here’s the challenging part. For instance, if you’re in health and wellness, you’re competing with WebMD, which has a deal with Google to come up first no matter what symptom or medical ailment question a searcher asks. If you sell something, you’re up against Amazon. The trick is to come up right under these big guys in the ORGANIC search results.
Consequently, since Google implemented continuous scroll, there is no more “1st page”. Now you want to be in the top 10-20 slots. The question is, how much does a person need to scroll to find you? And now you have Google’s AI Overviews to deal with!
Nevertheless, there is a trick to beating the competition for that coveted top 10 slots on Google and that’s where good SEO copywriting comes in.
I can help you rank higher on Google!
I offer a free 15-minute Zoom consultation and analysis of your website, blog, SEO, and social media efforts.
A-la-Carte Pricing
- SEO Keyword and Competitive Research – $150 — you’ll get a spreadsheet with the top 20 keyword suggestions that will help you with what to blog about and tell you exactly what your target audience is searching for to find you. Then, depending on your main keywords from the keyword research, you’ll get a list of your competitors who rank higher than you on Google. Additionally, you’ll get tips on what you need to do to beat them.
- SEO Copywriting – please visit this page for details
- Blogging – I Blog for You: $1000/m, 3-month contract – WordPress Websites Only
- 4 blog articles a month, 300-500+ words, researched, with corresponding graphics.
- Understand that blog posts written are in the voice of a reporter which is different from the voice of the expert. For maximum optimization of Google’s E-E-A-T, I would need an expert quote from you on the topic.
- Articles are of good quality and of interest to your target market. I determine the target market based on your completing the free Define Your Target Market Workbook.
- Optimized for SEO
- Optimizing all for SEO and including at least 2 pictures.
- They may include an embedded infographic or video, in which case, the word count would be less.
- It does not include managing or maintaining a WordPress site. No updates or plugins. Just posting.
- 4 blog articles a month, 300-500+ words, researched, with corresponding graphics.
- Editing Services Option – You Write, I Post: $500/m, 3-month contract — WordPress sites only.
- 4 articles/month written by the resident expert sent to me in a Word or Google doc. (no PDFs)
- I will edit them for grammar, SEO, and copywriting (driving the reader to the sale or call-to-action).
- Then post it on the WordPress website, and find 1 or 2 free-use pictures.
- Any additional articles in the month cost $125 each.
- It does not include managing or maintaining a WordPress site. No updates or plugins. Just posting.